


Zeroes & Ones

by redbrunja



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-06
Updated: 2012-07-06
Packaged: 2017-11-09 07:59:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/453177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbrunja/pseuds/redbrunja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Prompt: "I finally developed a computer with feelings. It just doesn't have feelings for me."</i>
</p>
<p>It took Pepper Potts forty minutes to tender her resignation, return her engagement ring, shred the prenup that they'd been arguing over for longer than they'd technically been affianced and strip all her personal effects from the mansion."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Zeroes & Ones

Pepper Potts is Pepper Potts, so on the evening she broke her engagement to a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, she accepted a job with an elite, covert government agency which involved security clearances higher than god before the photos of Anthony Stark and two Argentinian swimsuit models (sans swimsuits, plus a fountain) hit the internet.

Tony couldn't decide if that made breaking her heart hurt more or less.

He was used to Pepper's swiss-watch efficiency working to his benefit - she dragged the chaos that orbited around Tony Stark into something that, if you squinted, mimicked the life of an actual adult and ensured that his company remained profitable despite the dire predictions of the board.

It wasn't a surprise that Pepper ran her own life even more elegantly than she did his. It took her forty minutes to tender her resignation, return her engagement ring, shred the prenup that they'd been arguing over for longer than they'd technically been affianced and strip all her personal effects from the mansion.

When he was a child, Tony had sometimes taken close to that long to peel a band-aid off of a skinned knee. Admittedly, part of that was because he'd kept getting distracted with other things.

Actually, a correction. It took forty minutes for Pepper Potts to debride Tony Stark from her life and then eight more minutes to stand, staring out at the ocean, speaking softly to Jarvis. Her voice was soft, kind, and her words were so neutral that Tony couldn't - he couldn't listen to her.

"Just tell Jarvis I'm a fucking asshole and leave," he said, harshly, because if she didn't he was going to start crying and begging her to stay.

Pepper choked and glared at him, eyes blood shot. For one fierce moment he thought she was going to start yelling at him and he stepped forward in anticipation. Then he saw something shut off in Pepper's expression. She grabbed her suitcase and stalked out of his house, heels clicking violently against the flooring.

He went to the liquor cabinet.

Jarvis sent Pepper flowers.

Tony isn't quite sure when he figured that out; he did his best to keep a nice, anesthetic amount of alcohol in his bloodstream but - at some point, he decided to upgrade Jarvis - or maybe he found out about the flowers and - but the point is -

Jarvis sent her flowers.

The fucking A.I. that  _he built_  sent Pepper Potts flowers (her favorites; classy, intricate orchids and cheerful tulips) and Tony has this one clear memory of ripping through Jarvis' coding, lines of light at his fingertips, trying to find the pattern of zeros and ones that made an AI love a woman more than the AI loved his creator, sure that if he could just isolate it, isolate the equation that made that possible, he'd be able to remove it from his own coding as well.


End file.
